Whack-a-Mole Mind: When OCD Invades Your Love Life
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Whack-a-Mole Mind: When OCD Invades Your Love Life
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About this listen
Kaelin, a therapist specializing in OCD, explores relationship OCD and the destructive cycle of intrusive thoughts and compulsions that can hijack healthy relationships.
• OCD operates through intrusive thoughts causing distress, followed by compulsions that temporarily relieve anxiety
• Relationship OCD involves persistent doubts about one's relationship despite evidence of compatibility
• Common intrusive thoughts include questioning attraction, compatibility, or whether there's someone better
• Compulsions often involve reassurance seeking, comparing relationships, and obsessively researching relationship advice
• Partners of those with OCD often feel invalidated when constant reassurance doesn't help
• Effective OCD treatment includes Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
• Setting boundaries as a partner is important but challenging—supporting without feeding the OCD cycle
• Resources for help include NOCD and the International OCD Foundation
• Sexual OCD and pedophilia OCD are particularly stigmatized forms that attack a person's core values
• Intrusive thoughts about taboo subjects don't reflect a person's character or desires